Bill Start

An act to add Sections 120161, 120162, and 120163 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to communicable diseases.

[
Approved by
Governor
August 28, 2018.
Filed with
Secretary of State
August 28, 2018.
]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1787, Salas.
Reporting: Valley Fever.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to establish a list of reportable communicable and noncommunicable diseases and conditions and specify the timeliness requirements related to the reporting of each disease and condition. Existing law also supports research into the development of a vaccine to protect against coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever.

This bill would require the department, when it receives a report of a case of coccidioidomycosis after the department’s reporting deadline for a specified year, to include the case in its data collection for the next year and attribute it to the year of diagnosis in future data reporting. This bill would require the department to collect data on coccidioidomycosis cases by April 15 of each year, as specified. The bill would require the department, if it collects data on
coccidioidomycosis cases and removes discrepant data from its internal dataset, to timely report sufficient information about its removal of the discrepant data to a local health officer and the local health officer may remove the discrepant data from the county’s dataset. The bill would also require the department, if it publishes provisional data on coccidioidomycosis cases, to publish an explanation of data changes likely to occur and of discrepancies between data reported by a local health officer and data reported by the department. The bill would require the department to publish the date range of a dataset and the date on which the dataset was updated if the department publishes data on coccidioidomycosis cases.

Digest Key

Vote:
MAJORITY
Appropriation:
NO
Fiscal Committee:
YES
Local Program:
NO

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 120161 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120161.

If the department receives a report of a case of coccidioidomycosis after the department’s reporting deadline for a specified year, the department shall include the case in its data collection for the next year and attribute it to the year of diagnosis in future data reporting.

SEC. 2.

Section 120162 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120162.

By April 15 of each year, the department shall collect data on coccidioidomycosis cases from both of the following:

(b) Any other electronic data system used by a local health department, a coccidioidomycosis case report submitted to the department by a local health officer, or both.

SEC. 3.

Section 120163 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120163.

(a) If the department collects data on coccidioidomycosis cases from a local health officer and removes discrepant data from its internal dataset for any reason, including, but not limited to, to delete duplicate cases reported by multiple counties, the department shall report in a timely manner sufficient information about its removal of the discrepant data to the local health officer and the local health officer may remove the discrepant data from the county’s dataset.

(b) If the department publishes provisional data on coccidioidomycosis cases, the department shall include in its publication an explanation for likely data changes between initial and final publication, and an explanation for discrepancies between data reported by a local
health officer and data reported by the department.

(c) If the department publishes data on coccidioidomycosis cases, the department shall include in its publication the date range of the dataset published and the date on which the published data set was updated.